


Shadow and the Kindergarten Wars

by orphan_account



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-08-19
Updated: 2010-08-19
Packaged: 2017-10-11 03:55:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/108084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shadow reminisces about his time in kindergarten with Sonic and Silver. Based on a doujinshi manga.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The skies were gray, completely suffocated by clouds. This kind of sight reminded you that everything around you, was dead. You could look at the ground, and you would be surrounded by dead, pale yellow grass. No sign of life other than this dead grass. There wasn't even any bird's cheerful sonata to cheer you up either, they went away to a better place than this hellhole that you couldn't escape. The wind always blew in your face. The air was frigid, enough to freeze the mucus in your nose, which you most likely had. You would constantly blow your nose on a tissue and on this particular day, I had those damnable crusty shirt sleeves, which I hated deep down in the very pit of my black heart, but tissues were rare, hard to find. Everyone else kept on using them because their noses were filled with that annoying virus that spontaneously caused your nose to vomit snot. Here, we called it "The Snot Fairy". The Snot Fairy was a little creature that wanted to do nothing but make your nose suffer for its pure enjoyment. It was like as if it found some kind of pure happiness, like a drug, like a fetish, that it kept on making all our noses leak. I hated him, but I hated this damnable month most of all. February.

I was out in the war zone, viewing the towering castle ahead of me. I clenched my sword tight; I was completely covered in silver shining armor that, despite the sun hiding from this most wretched of days, glowed luminously. I felt powerful, but feeling confident in my strength didn't always guarantee that I was going to survive in this battle I was about to partake. The villagers have told me of the tales of this beast that dwelled inside this run-down castle. It killed many unsuspecting villagers, burned down many villages, and ate many knights who dared to challenge this dreaded creature that only hungered for more lives. However, ever since I was a little boy, I wanted to kill this beast of burden. Whatever it took. It killed my mother, left me with only my stern and uncaring father. This fiend, this urchin, took away my childhood, took away possibly many others. I was prepared to do anything, do anything no matter the cost, to defeat him.

The gates of hell opened, the bridge lowering down slowly, as I saw the beast's jade snake eyes staring back at me. I could tell that these eyes were brimming with madness, hunger, and hatred for even daring to go near his lair. I clutched my sword tighter, tighter; shaking. This was going to be either the start of a glorious story, or the end. But I would give it my very best. For my mother. For all the unfortunate victims.  
Before I could see it in all of its miserable glory, it heaved, then streamed forth many infernos from its mouth. The flames, even though I dodged them quickly, were enough to make me sweat beads from my body, almost as if it was raining. It crawled from the entrance of the castle, seeing its scales shine before my eyes. They were a lustrous cobalt, with many spikes protruding from its body. They also seemed as if they were quills, lunging towards the skies. The dragon twitched its tail, swishing it back and forth for a moment, then it plummeted towards me, feeling its crushing blow. My armor could not protect me from this tail that felt as if it were many tons of lead. I felt the searing pain of my body being crushed, as if I was a tomato being squished just for its delicious juices. I had to act now. Despite all this pain, I had to escape and slice this beast apart. I couldn't die. Not now. I would never die like this for my mother.  
"I'll help you, Shadow!"  
I tried to crane my neck. From what I could see, it was another knight, wearing glorious white metal armor, a white steed, and he held the most beautiful sword of all: the Excalibur. I was blessed. King Arthur came to help me.  
The horse began to gallop its way towards the dragon, the knight looking brave, determined. He thought, no, knew that he would slit this dragon's throat. He was King Arthur. He was the strongest, bravest knight in the land.

The dragon exhaled more flames from its mouth, the fire blazing across the land. I was shocked to see that the fire caught King Arthur, the flames possibly eating away at his flesh and armor. It couldn't be! King Arthur couldn't die! Not right now! The pain began to become unbearable. I would've screamed in pain, in desperation, until I saw something that I thought my eyes were deceiving me.  
The knight and the horse stood proudly before the dragon as the flames swayed around him, not a single burn on his face scorched into his skin. He smiled defiantly at the dragon, then bellowed, "I have a force field!"  
"Silver, that's unfair! Knights don't have force fields!"  
"Yeah but…King Arthur has special powers!"  
"No he didn't!"  
"Uh huh!"  
"Nuh uh!"

The two hedgehogs began their tirade of "uh huh" and "nuh uh"s, leaving me to sniffle and smear my snot-ridden nose on my sleeves. Another game ruined by that white hedgehog Silver and his damnable force fields. It was coming along so perfectly too, if he would've kept his mouth shut and learned to play along the rules.  
"Shadow, Sonic, Silver! Time to line up and go inside! It's lunch time!"  
I followed along with the both of them and lined up inside the building. Despite their insufferable arguing, my mood was instantly lifted by the promise of food. My stomach hungered for animal crackers and juice.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shadow discusses with Sonic what they want to be when they grow up.

Despite me having no weariness at all in my body, The Lady, the one who tells us what to do and we must obey, ordered us to sleep, called "Nap Time". She was our god, the one who ruled us with an iron fist, as we were all afraid to go against her and her rules. She was kind, but yet fierce. If you decided to break any of her rules, then may Solaris have mercy on your soul, if she doesn't make it take a timeout first.  
I laid there, staring at the white ceiling with my eyes fully open. The Lady put on some "calming" music to make us go to sleep, hoping it would silence our muffling. The music was a bunch of children singing nursery rhymes or songs. For some reason, I hated these children. They were singing, in their broken little voices, on a little black sheep. I don't hate them because they were probably more successful than me, but because I hated this song. I didn't hate the song because it was a terrible song, but for a reason I cannot explain, it made me feel…lonely. I didn't really know what the song truly was about, but I've heard the phrase, "the black sheep of the family". Being called a black sheep among a herd of white sheep meant you were unique, but you were considered dark, mysterious, and you didn't seemed to fit in with the rest of them.  
Why should I care? Sheep are mindless dumb animals that will do whatever you tell them and baa and have that nasty smell of feces and rotten food. If I was unique unlike all the other mindless idiots who liked the same thing then maybe I shouldn't worry incessantly about it.  
But yet the song touched me unlike the many other songs in that disc. Sometimes I wished that people could…understand me, as weird as that sounds. As much as I hated those white sheep, I wished that maybe they could understand why I seemed to be so angry at them. Maybe I was angry because I hated the color white and I hated how they smelled.

I looked around, still not even tired a smidge. Many colorful boxes to the left of me and my blanket that had cars on it (Cars are…may I have to admit, awesome, by the way. That's why one day I decided to drive a motorcycle and other vehicles that I could get my hands on.) and I began to count how many fire trucks were on it. One fire truck, two fire trucks, three fire trucks…I got up to five until I heard a, "Hey Shadow!"  
It was Sonic, grinning at me as if it was his birthday. "What are you doing up, Sonic? If the teacher finds out, you could get in trouble…"  
"I'm just thinking…what do you want to be when you grow up?"  
Ah yes, that question that had kids pipe up almost unattainable careers that they would never achieve in their lives…astronaut, doctor, fireman, the man who discovers a new color, a fire truck…  
But yet I answered him anyways. "I want to be a truck driver."  
He tried to suppress his laughter. "A truck driver? Why?"  
"I don't know. I like driving things."  
"Why?"  
"Because it's fun."  
"Why?"  
"…Because I always liked driving things."  
"Why?"  
"I don't know, Sonic. Quit asking why."  
"Why?"

I got annoyed, but I held my agitation to Sonic's curiosity, in fear of angering The Lady. I turned my body away from him. "Go to sleep, Sonic."  
"I want to be a superhero when I grow up."  
I turned my neck to look at him. "That isn't real, Sonic."  
"A real what?" he queried with those big green eyes.  
"A real thing you can do when you grow up."  
"The teacher said if you put your mind to it…"  
"The teacher is full of poo!"  
He was silent, as if I said something that tore into him deeply. I thought I broke apart his dreams until he finally said, "I'm telling the teacher on you!"  
"You better not!"  
"I'm going to right now!" He got up and walked across the room. "Teecha! Teecha!"  
I immediately rose and followed him, prepared to explain myself.

"What is it, Sonic? Is it hard for you to nap again?" she asked in that sweet voice that melted our hearts, but yet made us fear her.  
"No teecha. Shadow said you were full of poo!" He pointed to me indiscriminately.  
She sighed. "Sonic, what did I tell you about talking to people while they're trying to nap?"  
"But…but…he said you were…" His pointing was starting to shake.  
"Shadow, you don't say I'm full of poo. That hurts my feelings and isn't very nice, and Sonic, don't try to interrupt anyone's nap time. When everyone gets up I want you two to take an extra five minutes napping and take a timeout. Shadow's probably cranky and you need it, especially."  
"But…but…"  
"Now, Sonic. Back to your napping corner."  
As he walked back to his "napping corner" I stuck my tongue out at him. Justice was served, even if I said she was full of poo.

But yet I didn't feel so lonely now there was another child suffering like me. Men don't suffer alone. At least, I wasn't going to. I was usually the problem child, racking up more timeouts than anyone, but this time, someone had to go down with me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shadow thinks about the mysteries of life and death.

I was driving down a dirt road as the wind blew across my face and the sun was shining down on my path. There were grassy knolls to my left and right as I was going about 80 miles an hour in my black convertible, enjoying the speed, the sights, and how cool I looked. The engine made a great "vroom vroom" noise as I sped across the land, the dust flying behind me.  
I suddenly saw a yellow speck coming at me, and it was getting more noticeable quickly. I floored the brakes, the car turning to a screeching halt. I hoped that I wouldn't run over this thing, or that I would fly out of the car when it came to a full stop (Ed. Note: Shadow still thinks he's too cool for seat belts.).  
As the dust settled, the yellow thing became visible: it was a duck with many small ducklings following it. They stared at me for a while, then continued towards the other side.  
"Quack quack quack! You really need to watch where you're going, Shadow! Quack quack quack!" Silver imitated the duck's sound as he bounced it up and down.  
I was annoyed that Silver interrupted my pretend time with the convertible, by putting the duck right in front of it. If he cared so much about the precious duck, he should've not done that.

I soon forgot all about it as I started the car again and began to gradually pick up my speed. Maybe I wouldn't go as fast as 80 in case another damn duck got in my way, but I was once again speeding across the country, the engine making that delightful vrooming. I wasn't sure what this path would lead me, but I was curious to travel the world, maybe even finding the end of this dirt road.  
It was until that I heard what sounded like a siren. I looked in the mirror to see that a police car was quickly approaching, brightly flashing its red and blue lights. I wondered how the hell the police found me in the middle of nowhere, but I knew I wasn't going to get a ticket from this doughnut-eating clichéd pig. I pressed harder on the gas pedal, going about maybe 90-100 mph.  
The car began to speed up as well, knowing that this was now a pursuit. The dirt road seemed to be endless as I saw nothing but fields and maybe a few houses. I was wondering if soon I would arrive at an intersection or this road just went on for an eternity. It was as if I was going around in a circle, seeing the same sights and repeating this again and again. As I was wondering why it seemed to repeat, the police car somehow got ahead of me by going a little off the road and it was now blocking my way, stopping me from reiterating the road again.  
The officer got out of the car, revealing that he was a blue hedgehog with green eyes: Sonic. He approached me while looking at me sternly.  
"Sir, do you know how fast you were going?" he said.  
"Yes. About 90 miles per hour," I stated to him in a matter of fact voice. It was useless to lie to him now.   
"Yes, and the speed limit here is 10 miles per houwr. You were going…a lot over that limit."  
"Can I just enjoy going down this road? There's nobody here anyways."  
"Nope, you bweaking the rules. I have to give you a ticket."  
"You might not want to do that," I warned.  
"Why not? If you don't get a ticket you go to jail."  
"Because, believe it or not…" My car suddenly began to rise above the air, above the officer's head, going higher up in the sky. "My car can fly!" I began to push the gas pedal again, my car speeding across the sky.  
"Darn it, Shadow! I might not want to play with you anymore…" he mumbled.

I raced across the blue skies as I went through the clouds, eating a few (I thought they were cotton candy back then) as I saw a large orange cliff that was at the end of the dirt road. The cliff was completely rectangular, and had a very large chasm ahead of it. Curious, I drove my car down to the earth again, wanting to see this sight for myself.  
The sun was just now setting as I reached this cliff. There, I read a sign that was on the cliff, saying that this was "the end of the world". Quite literally, it was. After this large chasm, there was nothing. Where the world ended. It was eerie to me, now that I was at a place that was between something and nothing at all. To me, it was like time stood still. The sun didn't even seem to move after it was at the same position for what seemed to be hours.  
I sat in my convertible, admiring this sight. It was a little scary and sad, but yet it was also beautiful, to be so high up in this world. Even though I was a child, I symbolized this with life. Was this cliff like the end of your journey? Ahead of it, was death. Blackness. Behind it were the things you accomplished, your past, everyone you ever met…a concept like that I didn't totally understand just yet, but yet when I was here, I seemed to have a glimpse of what it was all about.  
Suddenly, my car began to move quickly towards the cliff. I couldn't stop it. I wasn't fast enough to put on the brakes. I fell off this cliff and began to tumble towards the great black chasm.

Another child knocked my car off the table. It fell onto the floor, a few pieces of it scattering across it.  
I tried very hard to hold back my tears. Not only my favorite car out of the ones in the box was broken, but what I just saw in my mind was a very frightening experience. To go into a world where nothing existed, not even time, leaving behind your memories, your experiences, everything…I sniffled, rubbing my eyes so no one could see my tears. As soon as I stopped attempting to hide my tears, I saw the blue hedgehog pick the car back up.  
"Let's give this car to the teecha. She can fix it…what's wrong, Shadow?"  
I guess he saw maybe a tear slide down my face. I only sniffed, my nose still stuffy, saying nothing.  
Suddenly, I felt warm. Despite that probably the next day Sonic would also have that damned Snot Fairy, he hugged me. Hugged me, out of all the nerve! But I was upset and I didn't seem to care. As soon as he stopped embracing me, he looked back at the car. "Let's show this to her. I'm sure she'll fix it."

I stood there for a bit, probably wondering why the bloody hell he did that. However, I followed him, as he gave my favorite car to The Lady.


End file.
